"People in York told us burglary was their number one concern. This is the response."

Speaking on the first anniversary of his appointment, Chief Superintendent Tim Madgwick revealed that house burglaries had been slashed by more than half.

He said 1,211 fewer domestic break-ins took place in the last 12 months, while overall crime fell by a more than fifth with 6,000 fewer crimes in total.

But 1,018 households still experienced the misery of being targeted by thieves, and rising violent crime continues to challenge the force.

Chief Supt Madgwick said that the number of persistent burglars operating in the city had dwindled to fewer than ten thanks to a determined drive to lock them up.

He said: "People in York told us burglary was their number one concern. This is the response. People should feel more confident that if they take reasonable steps to secure their home it will be safe. We are detecting more burglaries than ever before. We want to improve that standard further, but we are working with a smaller pool of people.

"Those committing house burglaries in York know that if they go to crown court they are going to get a tough sentence.

"If someone knows they are going to get three or four years for a house burglary, then they are going to think very seriously about doing that crime.

"We do still find that the majority of burglaries we have are sneak-ins where the house has been left insecure.

"But the message must have got across to many that by locking up their homes they are helping themselves and they are helping us."

Since Chief Supt Madgwick came into his post last year, a series of steps have been taken to improve the way crimes are investigated and to speed up police procedures.

Police chiefs now aim to send an officer and a forensic expert to every break-in, DNA results can now be available within ten hours and information from the public is often acted on in hours, rather than days.

Meanwhile specialist teams of "strike" officers are available around the clock to target suspects and dedicated personnel now handle all case files before they are sent to court prosecutors.

Speaking about crime in general, he said the Evening Press-backed "turn in a tagger" graffiti-busting campaign was a great example of how information form the public can drive good policing.

But he said that further challenges lay ahead as Chief Constable Della Cannings was determined to drive down crime by a further ten per cent over the next year.

How police are driving down crime

THERE were 21,174 crimes between April 1, last year and February 28, compared to 27,168 for the previous corresponding period. This is a reduction of 22 per cent. Almost a third of all crimes were detected.

Domestic burglaries have fallen by 55 per cent, with just 1,018 crimes compared to 2,229 for the same period the previous year. Commercial burglaries fell from 2,042 to 1,486, a fall of almost 30 per cent.

The number of robberies has fallen by 20 per cent from 200 to 162. Almost one in three were detected by the police. However, violent crime has increased from 3,452 offences to 3,975 offences, a rise of 15 per cent.

Updated: 10:15 Wednesday, April 06, 2005